


in the rain

by preromantics



Category: Iron Man (Movieverse)
Genre: F/M, Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-21
Updated: 2010-07-21
Packaged: 2017-10-10 17:31:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/102295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/preromantics/pseuds/preromantics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Pepper is in the living room of her apartment when Tony drops down on the balcony, cutting through the rain outside, standing there behind the sliding glass doors.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	in the rain

Pepper is in the living room of her apartment when Tony drops down on the balcony, cutting through the rain outside, standing there behind the sliding glass doors.

Pepper doesn't move from her spot on the couch. She's got her feet up on the coffee table, her favorite pair of silk pajamas on, a glass of white wine balanced on the couch's wooden arm rest, and a book open on her lap. The temperature inside is just right and it's quiet save for the dull noise rain pounding on the roof, on the concrete of the open balcony to her right.

She hadn't been reading, though. She had been relaxing, looking out at the rain as it fell, her PDA not even within reach. She'd been contemplating a bubble bath and she had been thinking of Tony in the vague way that Tony existed constantly in her brain, like she could always feel the presence or overwhelming absence of him in any room he had been in before.

He hadn't been in her living room before, though, and she had to lean forward and squint to make sure she was really seeing Tony in his Iron Man suit on her balcony, out in the rain. He didn't make a move to open the glass doors, although he had obviously seen her, slouched down on the couch in a mess of a home-only outfit, the silk of her pajamas wrinkled from disuse. (When did she really get a chance to relax, after all.)

She sighs, once, and slides her book of her lap, relocates her wine glass to the coffee table where there is less of a chance it could be knocked over. She watches from the couch, feet off the table, as Tony takes off the helmet, the face plate sliding up before he tucks the whole thing under an arm, hair instantly matting down damp and unruly over his eyes.

Pepper only gets up after he shrugs at her, the bulk of the suit moving with it, and she slides open the door carefully, the sound of the rain hitting her all at once, the clean smell of it washing away the city filth. She inhales deeply and steps back from the sprinkle of it blown through the door by the wind.

Tony steps inside, one large step in the suit, and Pepper looks down and frowns at her white carpet, now a little soaked through, mud left in the imprint of the suit's boot.

"I'll pay for that." Tony says, easy, and then, "Hi, Pepper."

"Mr. Stark," she says. She wishes she had a robe, that she hadn't tied her hair up in a messy bun after her quick shower, that Tony had any sense of how normal people came over for late-night visits. (Not that Pepper has much sense of it, either; no one comes to visit her, and she only knows about visiting other people with Tony at her side. Or, being at Tony's side -- however that works.)

He makes at face at her formal greeting, in his typical fashion, but doesn't move any further inside.

"You know," she says, "most people come to the front door. Or they call first." Which is true, but Tony isn't most people, so it's sort of irrelevant. Like most things she says, Tony ignores it, or files it away for later scrutiny or for some database he has on everything she's ever said, because that's probably something he does -- Pepper doesn't actually want to know.

"Come out here with me," he says, after a pause.

Pepper looks around the bulk of his chest in the suit and frowns out at the rain, raises an eyebrow at him. "It's raining," she says, even though it's obvious by the way the collected drops of water are running down his arms in the suit and gathering in little puddles on her carpet, the way his hair is a damp mess all over his head without product.

He extends a covered hand, the suit fingers flexing, and he grins, wide. "I know," he says, and she thinks about all the times she's had to follow him blindly before, all the times she will in the years to come; how she really has no problem with it, as long as she's there to see he gets back from all the places he goes safely, as long as she knows how to run the company so he doesn't have to all the time.

She sighs, once, and takes his hand. Her night was shot as soon as he landed on the balcony, anyway. It's not like she was doing much, not like she wasn't thinking about whatever stupid mess he'd make that she'd have to clean up in the morning. (Not like she hadn't seen him for a few days, wasn't missing him, his erratic thought process and disregard of social conversational norms that made her kick him under tables.)

The rain falls down on her quicker than she expects when they step out, soaking through her hair and then her silk pajamas, her bun coming loose in little tendrils as it gets heavy and matting down on her neck. Tony's hand -- not really his hand, just cold metal under her fingers, -- wraps around hers and pulls her forward. The rain bounces off his suit in staccato bursts of sound, pings and deeper, less hollow noises.

Pepper likes looking up to see his face without the mask, the way he's squinting over at her, raindrops falling over his face -- he looks like Tony and Iron Man at the same time, both of the things he struggles to find a middle ground with, that Pepper always tries to balance for the company and for him and for her.

"You," Tony says, looking down at her, "look beautiful. I knew you would in the rain, but I wanted to come over and see."

Pepper laughs, blinking away the water falling down her eyelashes. Her silk is clinging to her in a sticky sort of way, damp on her skin, and her bare arms are prickling and cold. "So you -- flew over?"

"I was already in the suit," Tony says, shrugging again, over-exaggerated. "The car seemed like it would take too long. I needed to see you now."

"Now," Pepper repeats, looking up at where the rain is falling and closing her eyes to feel it. That's how Tony's brain works, instantaneous, she knows that. He gets a thought in his head and jumps.

Pepper uses her free hand to brush away some hair from her eyes. Sometimes she wants to jump, too. "What about now?" Pepper asks, opening her eyes again. Tony has leaned closer, grinning, softer now, just the sides of his mouth, at her.

"Not sure yet," he says.

"So you flew here?" Pepper asks, thoughtfully. She doesn't feel like she's wearing anything at all now, not with the way the silk is clinging, not with her clean face and messy hair, not with the way Tony is looking down at her, eyes dragging.

Tony nods. Pepper shifts on her feet. It's still early in the night. It's raining and Tony Stark is on her balcony holding her hand, and he came to see how she looked in the rain. She grins, only a little reluctantly, back at him.

"Sometimes --" she starts, but stops, changes her mind. "If I -- Where would you fly next?" she asks.

Tony leans back. "How long do you think you can hold on for?" he asks, thoughtfully, face drawn in pleasant surprise.

_Forever_, Pepper thinks, irrationally. "As long as it takes to get where you want," she says, instead.

Tony puts the helmet back on, watches her as the faceplate falls down. Pepper reaches out and runs her fingers along the drops of water gathered in the metal indents near where his cheek would be and Tony laughs, the sound deep and different coming out of the suit.

"Hold on," he says, and he sounds happy and loud, so she does, pressing forward into his chest as his arms close around her, closing her eyes at the sting and whip of rain and wind that hits her as they fly up, feeling cold and hot all at once. She looks down at her balcony and realizes it's like she's jumped, jumped like Tony would have and always does, and she ducks her head to stop the rain at her face and lets Tony steer the way.


End file.
